"Hooded merganser The hooded merganser (""Lophodytes cucullatus"") is a species of small duck. It is the only extant species in the genus Lophodytes. The genus name derives from the Greek language: lophos meaning 'crest', and dutes meaning diver. The bird is striking in appearance; both sexes have crests that they can raise or lower, and the breeding plumage of the male is handsomely patterned and coloured. The hooded merganser has a sawbill but is not classified as a typical merganser. Hooded mergansers are the second smallest species of merganser, with only the smew of Europe and Asia being smaller, and"
"from ""mergus"" and ""anser"", Latin for ""goose"" In 1843 John James Audubon used the name ""Buff-breasted Merganser"" in addition to ""goosander"" in his book ""The Birds of America"". There are three subspecies, differing in only minor detail: It is long with a wingspan and a weight of ; males average slightly larger than females but with some overlap. Like other species in the genus ""Mergus"", it has a crest of longer head feathers, but these usually lie smoothly rounded behind the head, not normally forming an erect crest. Adult males in breeding plumage are easily distinguished, the body white with"
"Mergus Mergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the subfamily Anatinae. The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird. The hooded merganser, often termed ""Mergus cucullatus"", is not of this genus but closely related. The other ""aberrant"" merganser, the smew (""Mergellus albellus""), is phylogenetically closer to goldeneyes (""Bucephala""). Although they are seaducks, most of the mergansers prefer riverine habitats, with only the red-breasted merganser being common at sea. These large fish-eaters typically have black-and-white, brown and/or green hues in their plumage, and most have"
"hunting and predation by introduced mammals. The bird was not flightless, but rather hard to flush; it preferred to hide between rocks when pursued. The last sighting was of a pair shot on January 9, 1902. It was not found in a 1909 search, and a thorough 1972/1973 exploration of possible habitat concluded that it was long extinct (Williams & Weller, 1974). Subsequent fossil discoveries suggest that this merganser was previously resident in the South Island, and on Stewart Island/Rakiura in New Zealand. Fossils of a subspecies or closely related species have also been found on the Chatham Islands. There"
"species in captivity in Europe and most specimens recorded in the wild are regarded as escapes, a small number of birds have been regarded as genuinely wild vagrants. Britain's current first accepted record is a bird which was seen on North Uist in October 2000. Small numbers are seen regularly in Dublin, but these are presumed to be escapes. The hooded merganser is a diving predator that largely hunts by sight while under water. Most studies report that its diet varies according to circumstances, usually being dominated by fishes (44-81%). In addition it feeds on aquatic insects (13-20% of its"
"the binomial name of ""Mergus cucullatus"". The hooded merganser is a sexually dimorphic species. The adult female has a greyish-brown body, with a narrow white patch over the lower breast and belly. She has a light reddish-brown crest extending from the back of the head. During the nonbreeding season the male looks similar to the female, except that his eyes are yellow and the female's eyes are brown. In breeding plumage the dorsal areas and the head, neck and breast of the mature male are mainly black with white markings; there are large white patches on either side of the"
"such as the mergansers and smew, have serrated edges to their bills to help them grip their prey and are often known as ""sawbills"". Other seaducks forage by diving underwater, taking molluscs or crustaceans from the sea floor. The Mergini take on the eclipse plumage during the late summer and molt into their breeding plumage during the winter. There are twenty-two species in ten genera: Below is a phylogeny based on a mitogenomic study of the placement of the Labrador duck and the diving ""goose"" ""Chendytes lawi"". Mergini The seaducks (""Mergini"") are a tribe of the duck subfamily of birds,"
"among riverbank vegetation, or (in winter) on the edge of floating ice. In most places, the common merganser is as much a frequenter of salt water as fresh water. In larger streams and rivers, they float down with the stream for a few miles, and either fly back again or more commonly fish their way back, diving incessantly the whole way. In smaller streams, they are present in pairs or smaller groups, and they float down, twisting round and round in the rapids, or fishing vigorously in a deep pool near the foot of a waterfall or rapid. When floating"
"Mockingbird Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species in three genera. These do not appear to form a monophyletic lineage: ""Mimus"" and ""Nesomimus"" are quite closely related; their closest living relatives appear to be thrashers, such as the sage thrasher. ""Melanotis"" is more distinct; it seems to represent a very ancient basal lineage of Mimidae. The only mockingbird commonly found"
"Merlin (bird) The merlin (""Falco columbarius"") is a small species of falcon from the Northern Hemisphere, with numerous subspecies throughout North America and Eurasia. A bird of prey once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk in North America, the merlin breeds in the northern Holarctic; some migrate to subtropical and northern tropical regions in winter. Males typically have wingspans of , with females being slightly larger. They are swift fliers and skilled hunters who specialize in preying on small birds in the size range of sparrows to quail. The merlin has for centuries been well regarded as a falconry bird."
"Some fossil/subfossil members of this genus have been described: The Early Oligocene booby """"Sula"" ronzoni"" was at first mistakenly believed to be a typical merganser. A Late Serravallian (12–13 million years ago) fossil sometimes attributed to ""Mergus"", found in the Sajóvölgyi Formation of Mátraszőlős, Hungary, probably belongs to ""Mergellus"". The affiliations of the mysterious """"Anas"" albae"" from the Messinian (c. 5–7 million years ago) of Hungary are undetermined; it was initially believed to be a typical merganser too. Mergus Mergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the subfamily Anatinae. The genus name is a Latin word"
"to 1 part merlin. Hybrids percentages can be as varied as 50/50 to 7/8 and 15/16 perlins. Perlin (falconry) The word perlin is a falconer's term for a cross breed of a peregrine falcon and a merlin. It is much bigger and faster than a merlin, but is not as big as a peregrine so the quarry it takes varies from larger songbirds to small game birds such as hen pheasant. It is less likely to fly as high as a peregrine and usually rings close to the falconer. As a rule, the peregrine is the father and the merlin"
"The male bird sings a series of warbled notes to defend his nesting territory. These birds have declined in some areas where sagebrush has been removed but are still common where suitable habitat remains. The continued decline of sagebrush habitats in western North America is cause for alarm for this and other sagebrush dependent species. Sage thrasher The sage thrasher (""Oreoscoptes montanus"") is a medium-sized passerine bird from the family Mimidae, which also includes mockingbirds, tremblers, and New World catbirds. It is the only member of the genus Oreoscoptes. This seems less close to the Caribbean thrashers, but rather to"
"Sage thrasher The sage thrasher (""Oreoscoptes montanus"") is a medium-sized passerine bird from the family Mimidae, which also includes mockingbirds, tremblers, and New World catbirds. It is the only member of the genus Oreoscoptes. This seems less close to the Caribbean thrashers, but rather to the mockingbirds instead (Hunt ""et al."" 2001, Barber ""et al."" 2004). ""O. montanus"" are pale grey-brown on the upperparts and white on the underparts with dark streaks. They have a slim straight relatively short bill, yellow eyes and a long tail, although not as long as that of other thrashers. As its name suggests, this"
"Mergini The seaducks (""Mergini"") are a tribe of the duck subfamily of birds, the Anatinae. The taxonomy of this group is incomplete. Some authorities separate the group as a subfamily, others remove some genera from the group and keep others. Most species within the group spend their winters near coastal waters. Many species have developed specialized salt glands to allow them to tolerate salt water but these are poorly developed in juveniles. Some of the species prefer riverine habitats. All but two of the 20 species in this group live in far northern latitudes. The fish-eating members of this group,"
"Perlin (falconry) The word perlin is a falconer's term for a cross breed of a peregrine falcon and a merlin. It is much bigger and faster than a merlin, but is not as big as a peregrine so the quarry it takes varies from larger songbirds to small game birds such as hen pheasant. It is less likely to fly as high as a peregrine and usually rings close to the falconer. As a rule, the peregrine is the father and the merlin is the mother. Other hybrids may occur, such as 3/4 perlins, where there are 3 parts peregrine"
"A smaller year-round range extends from Washington state and southern British Columbia to northern Idaho. They also breed to some extent in regions from Missouri to southern Canada and from Nova Scotia to eastern North Dakota and Saskatchewan, migrating when necessary to avoid winter conditions. For preference the hooded merganser lives on small bodies of water such as ponds and small estuaries where there is ample emergent aquatic vegetation, but it also inhabits larger wetlands, impoundments, flooded timber, and rivers. They prefer fresh water but do occur on brackish water bodies as well. Although the hooded merganser is a common"
"this phenomenon is due to the fluctuations of supplementary food stocks discussed above. Merlin (bird) The merlin (""Falco columbarius"") is a small species of falcon from the Northern Hemisphere, with numerous subspecies throughout North America and Eurasia. A bird of prey once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk in North America, the merlin breeds in the northern Holarctic; some migrate to subtropical and northern tropical regions in winter. Males typically have wingspans of , with females being slightly larger. They are swift fliers and skilled hunters who specialize in preying on small birds in the size range of sparrows to"
"merganser, king eider, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, spectacled eider, Steller's eider, surf scoter, and white-winged scoter. These represent one third of all waterfowl species in North America. Four of these species are threatened in some of their habitats: the harlequin duck in eastern Canada, the Barrow's goldeneye in eastern Canada and Maine, and the spectacled eider and Steller's eider in the United States. Four primary factors were identified for the declining populations of sea ducks in North America: ""lack of knowledge about their ecology, contaminants, unsustainable hunting, and habitat loss and degradation"". Activities such as ""logging, fuel-wood harvesting, and land"
"Anhinga The anhinga (; ""Anhinga anhinga""), sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word ""anhinga"" comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird. The origin of the name snakebird is apparent when swimming: only the colored neck appears above water so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike. They do not have external nares (nostrils) and breathe solely through their epiglottis. The anhinga is placed in the darter family, Anhingidae, and is closely related to Indian (""Anhinga melanogaster""), African"
"the female alone, is 13–15 days, with slightly longer again to fledging. This bird aggressively defends its nest against other birds and animals, including large iguanas, dogs and mongooses. Tropical mockingbird The tropical mockingbird (""Mimus gilvus"") is a resident breeding bird from southern Mexico south to northern Brazil, and in the Lesser Antilles and other Caribbean islands. The birds in Panama and Trinidad may have been introduced. The northern mockingbird (""M. polyglottos"") is its closest living relative, but the critically endangered Socorro mockingbird (""M. graysoni"") is also much closer to these two than previously believed . Adults are long and"
"might compete with other Merginae with which it shares its habitat then, e.g. common mergansers (""M. merganser"") and common goldeneyes (""Bucephala clangula""). This species is considered endangered by the IUCN. Its numbers declined in the 1960s and 1970s due to loss of primary forests in its limited range, particularly along the major rivers in Russia. Current threats include illegal hunting, entanglement in (ghost) fishing nets and river pollution, as well as ongoing destruction of forest. According to its current IUCN classification EN C2a(ii), fewer than 5000 adult and first and second year old birds remain, and most of these are"
"seeds, especially those of grasses. The nest is built of grass and lined with hair or feathers. It is placed low down in grass or between stones. Three or four eggs are laid, these are blue-grey or grey-green with purple-brown markings towards the larger end. White-bridled finch The white-bridled finch (""Melanodera melanodera""), also known as the canary-winged finch or black-throated finch, is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus ""Melanodera"" together with the yellow-bridled finch (""M. xanthogramma""). Formerly placed in the family Emberizidae, it is now considered a tanager. It is found in grassland in southernmost South America. There"
"Club-winged manakin The club-winged manakin (""Machaeropterus deliciosus"") is a small passerine bird which is a resident breeding species in the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. The manakins are a family (Pipridae) of small bird species of subtropical and tropical Central and South America. Like several other manakins, the club-winged manakin produces a mechanical sound with its extremely modified secondary remiges, an effect known as sonation. The manakins adapted their wings in this odd way as a result of sexual selection.[2] In manakins, the males have evolved adaptations to suit the"
"Sauger The sauger (""Sander canadensis"") is a freshwater perciform fish of the family Percidae which resembles its close relative the walleye. They are members of the largest vertebrate order, Perciformes. They are the most migratory percid species in North America. Saugers obtain two dorsal fins, the first is spiny and the posterior dorsal fin is a soft-rayed fin. Their paired fins are in the thoracic position and their caudal fin is truncated which means squared off at the corners, a characteristic of the family Percidae. Another physical characteristic of Saugers are their ctenoid scales which is common in advanced fishes."
"species affected the native vegetation and bird life, and caused the extinction of the New Zealand merganser, a duck formerly widespread in southern New Zealand, and ultimately confined to the islands. The New Zealand Department of Conservation plans to remove the last remaining introduced mammals from Auckland Island, making the entire island group pest-free, in what would be one of the largest multi-species eradication plans in the world. Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands (Māori: ""Motu Maha"" or ""Maungahuka"") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller"
"Phengaris Phengaris is a genus of gossamer-winged butterflies in the subfamily Polyommatinae. Commonly, these butterflies are called large blues, which if referring to a particular species is ""P. arion"", a species resident in Europe and some parts of Asia. ""Phengaris"" is currently defined to include the genus Maculinea. The type species of the latter was the Alcon blue (""""M."" alcon""). This species was found to be less closely related to most other supposed members of ""Maculinea"" than the traditional ""Phengaris"" species, and hence the two genera were merged to form a monophyletic group. Alternatively, ""Maculinea"" could be restricted to the"
"Penguin Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, with only one species, the Galapagos penguin, found north of the equator. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have evolved into flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch while swimming underwater. They spend roughly half of their lives on land and the other half in the sea. Although almost all penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere,"
"dropping, primarily due to habitat fragmentation and loss. The Mexican government has named the ""longirostris"" subspecies as a taxon of ""special concern"". Blue mockingbird The blue mockingbird (""Melanotis caerulescens"") is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It is endemic to Mexico, but has occurred as a vagrant in the southern United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest. The blue mockingbird is uniformly blue on its back, tail, wings, head and underbelly. This color is a result of feather structure rather than pigment, and"
"form the subgenus Melanitta, distinct from the subgenus Oidemia, which contains the black scoter (""Melanitta americana"") and the common scoter (""Melanitta nigra""). The only extinct ""Melanitta"" species, ""M. cerutti"", used to be present in California during the late Pliocene, but it has been moved in the genus ""Histrionicus"" (Harlequin duck). The genus ""Melanitta"" is part of the Mergini tribe, a monophyletic group of the Northern Hemisphere. It includes eiders, mergansers, goldeneyes and other sea ducks. This tribe is part of the family Anatidae, along with the swans and geese. The adult male is on average 1,050 g (2.31 lb) and"
"in flight from the ocean's surface (mostly flying fish), and sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food. The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Christmas frigatebird was once considered to belong to the species ""Fregata aquila"" but in 1914 the Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews proposed that the Christmas frigatebird should be considered as a separate species with the binomial name ""Fregata andrewsi"" in honour of the English paleontogist Charles Andrews. Of the four other species within the genus ""Fregata"", genetic analysis has shown that"
"Trumpeter swan The trumpeter swan (""Cygnus buccinator"") is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl with a wingspan that may exceed . It is the American counterpart and a close relative of the whooper swan (""Cygnus cygnus"") of Eurasia, and even has been considered the same species by some authorities. By 1933, fewer than 70 wild trumpeters were known to exist, and extinction seemed imminent, until aerial surveys discovered a Pacific population of several thousand trumpeters around Alaska's Copper River. Careful reintroductions"
"Tanager The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has an American distribution. The Thraupidae are the second-largest family of birds and represent about 4% of all avian species and 12% of the Neotropical birds. Traditionally, about 240 species of tanagers have been described, but the taxonomic treatment of this family's members is currently in a state of flux. As more of these birds are studied using modern molecular techniques, some genera are expected to be relocated elsewhere. Already, species in the genera ""Euphonia"" and ""Chlorophonia"", which were once considered part of the"